Panic over placidity: Chinese paranoia sets in

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If it were a glass half-full kind of government, the Chinese Communist Party
would be looking at the turmoil in the Middle East, weighing the marginal
risk of something similar happening at home, shrugging it off and getting on
with things.

Over the past 30 years it has delivered nearly unbridled economic growth and
improved the living standards of hundreds of millions of people. As it has
grown wealthier — and proudly ascended to world’s second biggest economy —
it has lavished spending on colossal rail projects and other infrastructure.

It has also given its people the enviable frisson of rising superpower